Woman, 23, killed scooter rider after hitting him at 70mph while sending winking selfie
A woman killed a scooter driver after driving into him at 70mph while using her phone to send a winking selfie to her boyfriend.
Amber Potter, 23, swapped a string of messages with him and other friends at the wheel while driving from Glastonbury to Norfolk late on September 15, 2021.
David Sinar, 64, was doing 40mph on his brand new Lambretta when Potter’s Vauxhall Corsa ploughed into the back of him on the A11 in Roudham.
Other cars had either slowed down or moved to overtake him, but Norwich Crown Court heard she failed to see him because she was winking at her phone with her tongue out for a selfie.
Mr Sinar, from North Walsham, died at the scene of the crash at around 9.30pm.
Potter was jailed for three-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.
Chris Youell, prosecuting, said Potter had taken pictures of herself and exchanged phone and Facebook messages with her boyfriend and others.
Of 55 messages found on her phone during the journey, 20 were ones she had sent together with audio clips with background road noise suggesting she was driving at the time.
She later claimed to police that the rear lights on Mr Sinar’s scooter had not been on when she crashed into the back of him but CCTV at a garage had proved it was lit.
Judge Katharine Moore told her: ‘He was there for all drivers to see – all those who had their eyes on the road that is.’
The court was told she had been so distracted that skid marks on the road proved she had not braked before hitting the scooter at 70mph.
Judge Moore said her use of a phone to exchange selfies while at the wheel had been ‘gravely inappropriate’ and had caused a ‘grossly avoidable distraction’.
Defending, Matthew McNiff said using her phone periodically on the journey had been ‘sporadic stupidity’.
He added: ‘She does recognise the terrible damage that she has done, that a life has been lost and that she has to live with that.
‘She is not callous. Her remorse is genuine and heartfelt.’
Shortly before his death, Mr Sinar, a former vehicle inspector and motor parts delivery driver, had semi-retired to spend more time with his 95-year-old mother who had moved to Norfolk from Birmingham to be close to him.
His family said he was a ‘very competent’ motorcyclist who had over the years owned everything from Harley-Davidsons to scooters. He had bought the new Lambretta only hours before he died.
He was also a passionate cyclist and over the years had raised tens of thousands of pounds for charities on rides including from John O’Groats to Land’s End despite having recovered from cancer in 2011.
In an emotional statement, which was read in court, his wife said he had been her ‘best friend and soulmate’ and that he had been ‘cruelly taken from us’.
She said: ‘I will never forgive Amber Potter for what she has done to our family.
‘She could have avoided it if she had simply obeyed the rules of the road.’
Judge Moore told Potter she was a ‘kind, compassionate, hard-working and caring individual in normal circumstances’ but that her actions had been criminal.
Banning her from driving for 45 months and ordering her to take a mandatory retest, she added: ‘No life can be gauged by the length of a sentence.’
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